The Paradox of Sustainability in Morocco as a Developing Country: Ambitions and Challenges

Morocco, an emerging nation, is working to contribute to long-term commitments regarding environmental and social sustainability on both local and global levels. Given the urgency of the ecological and social crisis, which is clearly evident at national, regional, and international levels, sustainable development is a response by all actors to reconsider global economic growth in order to take account of the environmental, cultural and social issues in the same balanced development approach. Several initiatives have been introduced in recent years in all areas related to sustainable development, starting with the national human development initiative, the Green Morocco plan, the 2020 Vision for Tourism, among many others (Bilali.2016). Morocco recently received international recognition as the hosts and organizers for the COP22 conference in November 2016. This is the second COP conference they’ve spearheaded, the first being COP7, which took place in 2001. (Zaierg.2016). Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is a concept that is intended to empower companies in their engagement with social and ecological responsibilities of the communities in which they operate and have impact. CSR is implemented within companies through different levers including: human resource management, public affairs, and supply chain management. The processes these business levers carry out are meant to support corporate development to embody more humane and responsible actions, as well as to improve the image of the company in the eyes of its employees and the world at large. CSR is one of the central social pillars defined to achieve sustainable development (World Finance.n.d.2014). As Morocco’s economy develops, companies are faced with the obligation to follow this international approach on sustainability and to construct strategies with long-lasting advantages to support the efficiency and performance of their companies. Despite the recent launch of a wide array of sustainably focused commitments, the country is still poorly ranked according to OECD, ILO, UNDP, and WEF (Hespress.2016). It is within these reports that the gap between Morocco’s highly publicized image and the reality is made painfully clear. What was intended to help progress the countries’ sustainable development may not be feasible in its current state, definitely, drastic changes are needed. (Wilkes.2016